Call Of Duty Black Ops 6's movement was inspired by Forza, and it's what'll get me back into COD

Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 looks good, really good. So good that I’m seriously considering breaking my decade-old retirement from the franchise.

I’m still incredibly sceptical as I’ve been burnt before. My last Call Of Duty game was Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2, as the future warfare direction the series was going in just wasn’t grabbing me in the same way it was other players. I was also a big fan of Halo at the time, and felt like I had a good thing going with a silly sci-fi shooter and a more grounded realistic one, I didn’t fancy seeing any crossover.

Check out the trailer for Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 Zombies below

That being said I was occasionally tempted by the newest releases. Modern Warfare Remastered, Call Of Duty WWII, Modern Warfare (2019) and Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War all caught my eye, but deep down I felt like my time with the series was over, and th e discourse around competitive multiplayer and the “glory days” of COD weren’t helping either.

What I presumed to be the final nail in the coffin was last year’s Modern Warfare II, and my God was my finger dangerously close to that preorder button up until the campaign length and open-world zombies was revealed. After that I was adamant I was done with the series, and there was nothing that could be done to change my mind, that part of my life was over for good.

But now here comes Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 looking better than half the COD games that came before it, and not just graphically.

Activision-Blizzard

So far the campaign, multiplayer and zombies mode have been shown off, and the beta is set to launch tomorrow, 30 August, so I’m crossing all my fingers that it plays as well as it looks.

What struck me the most about what we’ve seen so far is the movement. Call Of Duty has always been a competitive shooter franchise and the movement should always compliment that, but you can never forget the casual audience too.

After a chat with some of the developers at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, shortly after that initial reveal trailer was shown-off, I was dying to learn more about the innovations made to movement in this new release.

Omnidirectional is the best and only way to describe it, as players can move around in basically any direction without sacrificing they’re speed. Best example is when you’re being shot at by an enemy player. Previously you’d either stay put and fire back, maybe hit through crouches to throw their aim off, or charge away in the hopes their aim was never good to begin with. Now you’ll be able to move, dive and slide in any direction you choose while also shooting, giving you far more control of your character and combat encounters.

Activision-Blizzard

You don’t have to click or hold any buttons down either, the movement is smart and very versatile, which is excellent for brand-new and returning players. Movement settings can also be customised at will, giving you more or less control given your preferences or skill levels.

The team was apparently inspired by the Forza games for this. Anyone who’s played a Forza game will know that the game does most of the driving for you, and it’ll even tell you which part of the road you should be on and at what speed for the best control of your car. Players can change the settings as much as they like too, so if you’re a casual player who doesn’t want to make any mistakes you can keep the assistance tools on, or if you’ve been playing racing games your whole life you can switch them all off.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 took a similar approach to its smart movement mechanics, and it sounds like it’ll provide the best of both worlds for high-level players and those who just want to have fun.

I can only imagine how much fun it’ll be to use this kind of movement in the zombies mode too, as being able to dolphin dive over a horde of infected and sprinting off to safety sounds like heaven compared to the last few iterations.

Activision-Blizzard

As someone who hasn’t touched a Call Of Duty game in years, Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 excites me, especially since it’s had a longer development cycle than previous games. While a new campaign and the return of round-based Zombies definitely has my interest, the dynamic, intelligent movement is what’s gotten my attention.

The beta launches tomorrow, 30 August, and you best believe I’m going to be jumping on for several games to see what it’s like.